---
title: "Red Admiral"
description: "Vanessa atalanta — Insetos e aranhas. Vanessa atalanta, the red admiral or, previously, the red admirable, is a well-characterized, medium-sized butterfly with black wings, red bands, and white spots."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/pt/animal/red-admiral
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Red Admiral

> Vanessa atalanta — Insetos e aranhas. Vanessa atalanta, the red admiral or, previously, the red admirable, is a well-characterized, medium-sized butterfly with black wings, red bands, and white spots.

- Scientific name: *Vanessa atalanta*
- Category: `insects` (Insetos e aranhas)
- Habitats: `forest` (Floresta)
- iNaturalist observations: 293710
- Wikidata: [Q156454](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q156454)
- iNaturalist taxon: [49133](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/49133)

## Names

- en: Red Admiral
- de: Admiral
- es: Mariposa Almirante Rojo
- fr: Vulcain
- nl: Atalanta
- pl: Rusałka admirał

## Countries with the most observations

US (112227), GB (33041), CA (23591), DE (15876), FR (12321), IT (11888), ES (8397), DK (6537), RU (5684), AT (5588), NL (4661), PT (4178)

## Summary

Vanessa atalanta, the red admiral or, previously, the red admirable, is a well-characterized, medium-sized butterfly with black wings, red bands, and white spots. It has a wingspan of about 2 inches (5 cm). It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. The red admiral is widely distributed across temperate regions of North Africa, North America, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. It resides in warmer areas, but migrates north in spring and sometimes again in autumn. Typically found in moist woodlands, the red admiral caterpillar's primary host plant is the stinging nettle (Urtica…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_atalanta

## Photo

![Red Admiral](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/red-admiral/medium.jpg)

Photo: Lutra lutra · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/236233217

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/red-admiral?lang=pt` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).